The Many Faces of the Friends of the Center

Love of history, a sense of responsibility
and stewardship, and a sense of fun help define donors to the
Center for History of Physics. While the common thread of a
scientific career in physics, astronomy or associated sciences
runs through the most dedicated Friends, each has their own
story of why and when they realized they were interested in
science history.

Melba Phillips

Because
of the repeal of the estate tax, Melba Phillips had decided to send
in her bequest earlier, while still living, to gain the full benefit
of income tax deductions. "I have always been interested in
the history of physics," Melba commented. She explained that
while she could not give a precise date when her interest became
strong, she associated her love of history with the writing of Classical
Electricity and Magnetism, the classic textbook that she co-authored
with W. K. H. Panofsky and published in 1955. While writing about
the discoveries that led up to Maxwell's discovery of his equations,
Melba was struck by the unique and beautiful way these laws were
derived. Read more about Melba.

“I have always been interested in
the history of physics...”

Frank Edmondson

Frank
Edmondson decided to provide a generous donation to the Center's
endowment through a bequest.
Frank and his wife Margaret Russell Edmondson have also provided
a yearly gift to the Center for the past twelve years.

The project responsible for triggering Frank's active involvement
in preserving and documenting the history of astronomy had
its origins in a letter written to him in 1964 by David L.
Crawford, suggesting that the history of the Association
of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) and Kitt
Peak National Observatory be recorded. About ten years later
Arne Slettebak and W.A. Hiltner, AURA board members, approached
Frank repeatedly, saying, "Frank, you've been in this
from the beginning, so why don't you write down your recollections
of the early history before you lose your memory."

Although Frank's original plan was to simply organize archival
files and write commentaries, he quickly saw that more was
necessary."Also, it soon became clear to me
that I had a moral obligation to do this. The story was much
too important, interesting, and complicated to put back in
the files to gather more dust," Frank noted in the preface
to his book, AURA and Its US National Observatories,
published in 1997. Frank recently recounted in a telephone
interview, "I realized that I was the only living person
left who could write this history in detail."

“It soon became clear to me that I had a moral obligation
to do this...”

John Armstrong

John
Armstrong became more aware of the Center while serving as
Chair of the Governing Board of the American Institute of
Physics. He has generously donated leadership gifts each
year to the Center for the past few years. He attributes
his interest in the history of physics to a specific teacher
while he was at Harvard. "The history of physics is
a key part of the history of modern civilization," John
comments."Those who know it
best have a special responsibility to preserve it, and to
help make it known. My own conviction on this point goes
back to a course at Harvard taught by Phillip Franck, which
dealt with the history of relativity."

“The history of physics is a key part of the history
of modern civilization...”

Virginia Trimble

Virginia
Trimble, at a recent meeting and tour of the Center, mentioned
that she regretted she did not have a tape-recording of any
interview with her late husband, physicist Joseph Weber.
She said that if the Center could find such an interview,
she would give enough money to support a full interview with
someone else, a not insignificant sum. The staff searched the Web-based catalog on the spot, and found among
the Niels Bohr Library's holdings a tape of an interview
on Weber's contributions to the discovery of masers and quantum
electronics. While the tape and did not cover
Weber's pioneering work on gravitational radiation, Virginia
was happy with its presence.

Virginia says that she gradually and accidentally began
to read, write, and give talks on history of science after
she made the somewhat unhappy discovery that many things
she had thought of as "current events" had become
history, including the discoveries of quasars, pulsars, and
the cosmic microwave background. She has reached that even
more senior point described by David Dewhirst (of the Institute
of Astronomy, Cambridge UK) as, "You know you're getting
old when the apparatus you used for your PhD dissertation
research turns up in a museum." It was a spectrograph
in his case, and a 40-pound photographic plate holder in
hers.

Many things she had thought of as 'current
events' had become history...